STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr FRENCH (Moore) (16:13): The leader of One Nation, the member for New England and the coalition have launched another attack on compulsory superannuation. They want Australians to think that taking money out of workers' retirement savings is about freedom. I don't buy it.

Their problem with superannuation isn't that it belongs to workers. Their problem is the power it gives to workers. Forty years ago, through the accord, Australian workers agreed that part of their remuneration would be put away for retirement.

That money remained theirs. And something extraordinary happened: cleaners became investors, electricians became investors, nurses became investors, construction workers became investors. Working Australians accumulated trillions of dollars of capital, earned through their own labour.

That changed the balance of power in this country. That is the bit the Leader of One Nation, the member for New England and the coalition don't want to talk about. They say it's your money.

That's right; it is. But Labor and the union movement spent decades making sure it became your money. The Leader of One Nation's proposal is not a pay rise.

Your boss doesn't give you another cent. They take money from your retirement, put it in your everyday account, and then the Leader of One Nation calls you richer. That is not a pay rise.

That is a worker funding their own pay rise. When the member for New England was asked what it would cost workers in retirement—they hadn't even done the maths. Apparently asking him to do the maths required a miracle.

Super gives working people capital, ownership and economic power. Making workers poorer tomorrow is not standing up for them today.